our ferret anton

Question
hi jacquie, i hope you remember me concerning our ferret HARVEY, which is not living any longer :-(
we bought a new male ferret called ANTON, which lives now for 3 months in our house; at the beginning everything was ok, he was growing, eating, behaving like a normal ferret, except of a running nose i will say; after a few weeks he began having a cold attended with fever and getting ill so hard, that we don't know what to do or could be the reason for his illness; the symptoms were fever, cold, lethargy and non eating himself; he lost weight and was very tired; we consultated a new vet who, speaking from today, has checked everything possible in her mind, what could be the reason, but found nothing at all; at the moment he gets medicine (cortinsone, antibiotica and something for the intestine); with the help of this medicine he is in a stable condition, he is holding his weight (about 1030gr) and takes part of our life even if the time is very limited; we are feeding him every day and he don't want to eat most of the time; he is drinking cat milk and water as well as he eats a bit fodder sometimes; the rest of the day he is sleeping; so far to the past; we are now thinking what else we can do to help the little ferret and the tendence is in direction allergy, it would be kind to hear a opinion of you to the topic allergy, i know a similar topic with a cat which had an allergy against washing powder with similar symptoms; after changing the powder the cat got normal as before; this is our hope, do you have any experiences with ferrets and allergy? or do you have any other idea, everything is welcomed

thanks in advance for your reply

age : about 5 months
poop : ok
food : special food for anastasis, fodder, fruits, mash containing noddles, rice and vegetables (food for babys)

Answer
Hi Marcus:

Yes, I remember Harvey!  I am so sorry to hear that little Anton is sick.

It is imperative that you understand that ferrets are 'obligate carnivores' - in other words, their stomachs are meant to digest ONLY meat and meat products.  It looks like you are feeding Anton lots of vegetable and fruit products and he can starve to death if he doesn't live on meat.

If you want to feed baby food, it must be MEAT ONLY - no noodles, no fruit, vegetables, etc.  He does not get any nutrition from fruit, vegetables and noodles, rice, fodder, etc.  

Here in the U.S. we have a canned cat food that requires a prescription from the vet and it is called HILL'S A/D FELINE (canned food).  It is very easy to digest meat - chicken mostly. This makes a perfect food for a sick ferret if you can get it.  Warm it, add water until it is like thick soup and then feed it to him very warm.

I would also suggest that you put some extra soft blankies in his cage so he has a very comfortable, clean place to sleep.

I have heard of people using baby washing powder to launder their ferret blankies instead of regular laundry soap - if you think Anton has an allergy, you may want to try that.  But I think that allergies in ferrets are very very rare.  If he was allergic, he would have itchy skin and loss of fur probably.

I really think that Anton's problem is probably malnutrition because he needs meat - chicken and/or rabbit are best to feed.  He may need encouragement, but he must eat MEAT.  He can starve to death because all the other things you feed will only cause intestinal blockages, so they are very dangerous too.

Allowing a ferret to eat food other than meat is like allowing a child to eat candy all day.  He may like it, but it is not good for him and he can starve to death eating it.  Hopefully you understand that and can change immediately.

The cat's milk is okay, of course. It's a good liquid, but be sure there is plenty of fresh water available in his cage too, okay?

Best of luck - please let me know that he is okay once he starts eating meat or a premium quality ferret food like Frankie Ferret, Totally Ferret, etc.  If you don't get some meat in him, he WILL starve....it is not optional to feed fruit and vegetables.

I hope to hear good news from you next time. My thoughts and prayers are with you and Anton.

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers